


Can Jaegers Fly?

by Ravenhawk9999



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Dammit Barry, For Science!, Gen, Mad Science, Post-Canon, Sparks being sparks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28547337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenhawk9999/pseuds/Ravenhawk9999
Summary: The beginning of the jaeger air corp
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	1. Peregrine: The Birth

_It has been seven years since the defeat of the Other and the freeing of Mechanicsburg. In that time the alliance known as Grande Europa has grown in strength. The City State of Mechanicsburg with it’s nascent God Queen has become the primary weapons and research center of the alliance. Both of her consorts have their own detachment of jaegers just as she has smoke knights and_ _vespiary_ _squads assigned to her personal guard. Among the Baron’s guard is a jaeger known as Tinko, who has shown that she is an enthusiastic pilot for his heavier than air vehicles. And while she does miss the action of combat when her brothers enter the fray, she admits to herself that functioning as a high speed scout far above the field of battle has been invaluable, especially with the enhanced vision the jaegerdraught had gifted her with along with her sleek black mane and fangs. But now some of the sky pirates have been introducing their own fixed wing craft, and the dynamics are changing again._

_For the past three months, The Heterodyne and the Baron have been in a hanger workshop just near the Mechanicsburg SkyPort. Some of the most talented of their combined pool of sparks and minions with skills in metal working and clankwork have been dragged in to whatever sparkwork they were involved in. The only time either was seen was a week before when they came out, and after Tinko was pointed out by the Baron, her Mistress presented her a new cape pin with a winged jaeger symbol and instructed to wear it at all times._

Tinko was sparring with Maxim, her duel gladius form creating a blur as they danced, Zeetha and Oggie shouting encouragement from the sidelines as they danced, when Moloch poked his head out of the wicket on the hanger door. The two stopped instantly since they had not seen him for several days and the sound of tools had been slowing for the past few hours.

He looked around and when he saw her he called out, “Tinko? Her Shininess and the idiot want you. The rest of you can come in now as well. It should be safer now.” With his message delivered he began to slide the hanger door the wicket was on to the side.

When the group entered, they were greeted by the sight of a sleek bird like clank, the last remains of a support scaffold being pulled away by minions as dingbots crawled over it, polishing its surfaces and preforming final touches. The head had the multiple barrels of a pair of autoguns flanking a ladder leading up into the head. It’s folded wings barely concealed the intakes for a pair of air turbines. And it stood on two legs tipped with wickedly curved and obviously sharp claws.

Agatha and Gil stood in front of it, their hair still slightly haloed from their recent fugue state as they admired their work. At a slight noise, Agatha turned and saw them.

“Tinko!” she said, suddenly in front of the jaeger. “Great! You’re here! Have you been wearing the badge Like I asked? How have you felt while wearing it?”

Tinko blinked and then thought for a moment about the past week. “Hy hav ven vearing it. Hy feld fuzzy ut furst, bu ten gut bedder. Hy tink my perzeptun hus impruved und reaktuns ur fuster.”

“Great! That means it’s linked to you! Come with me!” Agatha ordered as she twirled and ran toward the ladder. With a bewildered glance at her brothers, Tinko followed, listening as Agatha went on about how Gil had praised Tinko as a pilot.

When she climbed up, Tinko found herself in a cramped compartment behind two forward facing seats with a narrow walkway to the left of them and a small hatch leading to the rear. Both seats were obviously the Baron’s patented rocket seats meant to get crew away from a damaged craft quickly and deploy De’ Vinci chutes for a safe descent. With the exception of a few extra gauges, the forward seat was a standard layout for pilots that the Baron had designed.

“OK! You sit here!” Agatha ordered, and not waiting for Tinko to respond dragged her to the forward seat and sat her down, pulling straps in place. “These are temperature gauges for the turbines, and these are RPMs! Don’t let any get into the red! This is battery level, if it starts dropping while turbines are running, something is wrong! These two are ammo counters for the guns! The compartment behind this one can be configured for passengers, cargo, or bomb racks.! The rest you should recognize!” Agatha continued on, still in a mild mad space.

“Now, to start it,” Agatha then said, looking at Tinko. “Twist off the face of your badge, and place it here!” She pointed at an oval indention in the center of the instrument panel.

Without a moments hesitation, having been caught up in her Mistress’s enthusiasm, Tinko twisted the face of her new badge, revealing a set of gear shaped keyholes that matched the gears in the indentation. She pushed the badge into the indentation, and suddenly the face opened showing one of the dingbot eyes that looked at her. At the same time she felt her perception expand. She could see outside the craft in all directions. The wings and claws became hers as her hands and feet fell with long practice on the controls of the craft. She felt her Mistress strap in behind her as she saw minions pushing the hanger doors wide open.

“Ok Tinko! Walk us out and let’s see what a Peregrine can do!” Agatha said from the rear seat. “For SCIENCE!”


	2. Perigren: First Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flight and weapons test

“Ok Tinko! Walk us out and let’s see what a Peregrine can do!” Agatha said from the rear seat. “For SCIENCE!” she said…

Easier said than done Tinko thought, using her normal eyes to look at the controls. While they were obviously based on the controls Baron Gilgamesh had designed for his fixed wing craft, at the same time there were switches and toggles positioned near the controls that she had not noticed before.

“Bot Mishtress, how?” Tinko asked. “Vitout veels, de throttle vill jusht cause us to tip forvard!”

“That’s what the Interface Core is for,” Agatha said. “Even a basic Interface Cog will know that since we’re on the ground that you just want to walk forward, but this Core is bonded with you, so it will read your subconscious intent and give you the information on how to do it.”

Tinko thought on this for a moment, and just as Agatha had said, knowledge was fed to her. With just a slight adjustment of the throttle and the intent walk, the craft closed the boarding hatch, rustled its wings, and began to walk forward. The ride was smooth after the initial shift of its balance to center itself above a claw. Each step placed one claw ahead of the other, and the observers could tell someone had paid careful attention to the articulation. Even the uneven ground outside the hanger did not cause an issue.

As she advanced, Tinko continued to get a better feel for the craft, both as a clank and as an extension of her body. It was an alien feel, not unpleasant, but also not something she felt could be endured for extended periods. She could feel the terrain under its claws as if they were her own, the wings shifting to maintain balance, even the temperature and wind direction of the air. Her vision was almost doubled as she saw both the controls and the area around the clank. To her amazed mind she realized she could perceive everything around them, even to the extent that she could _see_ thermal patterns. From prior experience she knew thermals could be useful for lift.

“Ok Mishtress, ve're clear uf de hanger. Zo how do Hy fly?” Even as she asked though, she knew that she just needed her intent. She felt switches automatically flip, switching from ground mode to ornothoptic flight, and felt _her_ wings unfold. _She_ crouched, _her_ wings arching up in preparation, and then leaped into the air, _her_ wings powerfully sweeping downward, catapulting them into the air as the turbines screamed to life, pushing them into the air. “Ho, never mind!” she exclaimed with glee as she climbed through the cluster of airships tethered above the airfield.

She marveled at what it meant having wings as flexible as the clanks in addition to the newfangled turbines. Compared to even the new turbo props the latest airships used, the turbines provided great thrust, and combined with the wings, she had a maneuverability that just could not be compared with the best biplane.

“Yaa Hoo! Thiz iz emazink!” Tinko shouted as they power dived and then buzzed the runway where a row of biplanes, including hers waited.

“Ok,” Agatha said from behind her. “I think you’ve proven it works. Now lets go to the practice range and see if you can hit something.”

“Ho! Iz dot a challenge?” Tinko said as she altered her course and headed towards the firing ranges where the army trained in their clanks.

As she approached, and looked at the giant strawmen set as targets, circles suddenly appeared in her vision, showing her the spread of her cannons as she flew.

“Ok, Tinko, we have a full dozen targets set up for you. You don’t have just the guns either. Think you can take out some of them without actually crashing?”

Tinko lined up for her run, realizing that while limited, the neck articulation allowed her to even aim at targets off axis from their flight plan. She quickly took out the first four with the guns, and felt that that was no challenge. But then they were not firing back at her. Then she flew towards the remaining targets, thinking of how a bird would fight. As the clank neared the first, she had the legs extend and did a sideways crash into it, the claws sinking into the body of the strawman and knocking it over before jumping up and resuming flight. She then proceeded to destroy the remaining seven targets, even using the wings to batter one of them. Agatha observed through a set of goggles she wore, making comments to yet another of her tiny clanks.

After she was done, Agatha asked her to fly them back to the hanger. She came in for a graceful landing, and the wings folded up as it settled in. When she saw that the clank was settled, she reached out and gently removed the… Interface Core? from the instrument panel. Many of the indicators turned off and the hatch opened, extending the ladder downward.

“Dot vas emazink Mishtress. May Hy hef vun!”

“This is but the first of many,” Agatha replied. “But only a few will be able to get it’s full use as you have. Keep that badge safe. It is how you link to this and any of the clanks we are currently designing using this control system. That is your Core, and no one else's.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to RoryMercury for advise and LordFuzzy for the name of the Core


	3. The Air Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, just how do jaeger pilots gt their fancy hats?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to Zahri for allowing me to add their excellent "Coming Home" into this.

The Mechanicsburg Times

Our Mistress Welcomes the Third Annual

Air Challenge to Mechanicsburg!

* * *

Barry was still attempting to be inconspicuous, but he rapidly realized that all of the citizens knew who he was, and were helping him maintain his anonymity with the tourists. He also easily spotted not one, but three separate security units. The jaegers he had been expecting, but there were also several members of a vespiary squad scattered around him, and he’d seen signs of at least three smoke knights, their attention focused away from him.

He purchased a paper to see if their return was mentioned, but the only place he and Bill are even mentioned is a warning to stay away from the statue of them the next day while some clank cleaners would be cleaning it for the airshow mentioned in the banner.

As he read, he became aware of multiple roars approaching. He looked up, wondering what it was and noticed that while the townsfolk just went on about their business, the tourists all looked up and started pointing to the south. He also noticed that a few of the Torchmen apparently had hats on and were flying in his direction in an evasive pattern, and not aflame. He was starting to turn to see where they were heading when suddenly a massive black avian like clank swept around one of the towers and grabbed one of the Torchmen out of the air with one of its claws before flexing its wings to soar upward, using the other claw to pluck the hat off of its catch and then releasing it.

“Woop! Looks like Grigoriy gots hiz new hat!” He looked in the direction of the shout, and saw a handful of jaegers almost uniformly dressed in nearly matching overalls and cloaks, all wearing a gold badge of a winged jaeger crest as cloak pins. What was more interesting was all three had nearly matching bushman hats, the folded up side sporting various small badges.

“Looks like you need an explanation,” came a voice from behind him. Turning around he saw a young man and woman sitting at a table in front of a bakery, both sipping coffee and eating from a plate of pastries while reading from a stack of folders between them. “Please join us,” he added, indicating the other chair at the table. “No one will bother us.” Even as he spoke, one of the maids brought out another place setting and refilled the cups. The nearest tables were suddenly occupied with a mix of jaegers and wasp eater handlers, petting and feeding the wasp eaters. “Don’t worry. Yours is decaf. We learned that lesson quickly with your niece.”

Catching a whiff of the delightfully smelling coffee, and wondering at the story hinted at, Barry took the seat. “Don’t mind if I do, young man.” He took a sip, and was astounded by the flavors he was bombarded with. After marveling at the taste, even as he watched the two continue perusing what he saw were reports from various parts of the valley, he gently set the cup down with a slight tink, instantly catching the young man’s attention. “So, may I have the pleasure of your name?”

“OH, sorry milord. I am Vanamonde von Mekkhan, the current Seneschal, and this is Vidonia Orkalina, Agatha’s personal secretary. Moloch may join us later if he’s not busy with one project or another. You can call me Van, milord.”

Van picked up another pastry and nibbled at it, then pointed down the avenue where another capture of a Torchman occurred. “What you’re witnessing is jaeger pilots who have shown particular skill over the past year capturing new hats for themselves. The traditional way of getting a hat on the battlefield doesn’t work for them, so instead they earn the right to enter a special hunt arranged for them. The Castle sends up a swarm of Torchmen “hares” wearing hats, and the pilots use their peregrines to capture and steal the hats. To further distinguish them, pilots are issued combat badges to decorate the hats with.”

“This year’s air show will be interesting,” he went on. “I understand a few of the Baron’s bonded peregrine pilots will be entering the hunt as well. It will be a first, but then this is the first year any have volunteered for bonding.”

“Bonding?” Barry asked with a frown.

“Yes,” Van said and looked around. “Tinko,” he called out, and as the black maned jaeger pilot looked up from petting a wasp eater, he waved her over. “Milord, this is Tinko, the first peregrine pilot. Tinko, can you show the Master your co-pilot?”

“Uf coarse,” she said as she pulled the badge off of the cloak clasp it was the face of. She set it on the table and tapped it. The face opened to reveal one of the big eyes Barry had seen on the miniature clanks roaming around the Castle. He understood that they were Agatha’s signature invention, artificial minions with at least a touch of the spark capable of limited reproduction. Except for the lack of limbs or motile feature, this looked like one of hers.

“Thiz iz my shmot box,” she said as she pulled a couple of stand legs out so it coud set on the table like a picture frame. “It gives me a direct mind link to vot ever clenk it iz plugged into. Hy * _become_ * de clenk.” She paused in thought and then, “Can't do it for too long. Oddervise my mind becomes... veird. The shmot box dozn't allow it to gets dot far though. Ve learned to use de full capabilities uf dem only ven ve need dem.”

“But Bonding?” Barry pressed, a hint of his spark showing.

“Yes, you are correct that it sounds disturbing,” Van said. “And while it is a modification on some of Lucrezia’s research, it is not the overwrite she was going for. This is a real-time sensory and motor control link with the pilot’s mind in control. They’ve even run it by Albia, and she approves of it even as she was worried about the possible risk of power addiction. Which is the reason for the deliberate limits built into them. The weirdness Tinko mentioned.”

Van jumped slightly and pulled a pocket watch out. Opening it he looked at the time, ignoring how the eye that replaced the 12 glared at him. “Hmm, it looks like I need to start heading for the airfield. Would you like to meet the new pilots and the heroes of the year?” he asked as Ms. Orkalina began packing up the folders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is largely due to a convo on discord trying to figure out how would a fighter pilot in an enclosed cockpit fighter get a hat. It was largely decided that a test of skill was the way. So I just had to come up with a test. What I came up with was three. Two of them are for fixed wing craft and are very similar to Red Bull Air Races. But the peregrines are so agile that that seemed lame for them. Then as I was writing this I came up with the Torchmen Hunt.
> 
> And again thanks to my friends on the Discord for helping me.


	4. The Air Show: Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A carriage ride for Barry to reflect on.

Barry decided to join Van and Vidonia on their way to the airfield, getting informed of some of the work he saw as they rode a steam carriage through the city. It became obvious that Mechanicsburg was still adapting to its new, larger borders. Some of the avenues were being widened for a network of suspended passenger carriages that had loops through the city and out to the new manufacturing and lab complexes. He also saw numerous towers being built or reinforced with perches for the giant air clanks.

“What is with all the… peregrines? We didn’t see them when we came through a few days ago.”

Vidonia looked out the carriage window and responded, “Most of them started arriving yesterday for the air show. For the most part they are usually out on patrol, but for the next week or so they will be rotating through here. This show is when they compete for The Heterodynes Favor and new pilots prove themselves.”

As he watched, several airships made their way through one of the mountain gaps, escorting a true monster a few kilometers in length and all bearing the winged rook symbol of the Baron. Barry was still getting used to the idea that Klaus had stepped down as Baron in favor of his son, but then he was also coming to terms that Klaus had a son. Even as he watched, a swarm of fixed wing and larger ornithoptor craft launched from some of the larger airships and descended towards the clearings outside of the city.

“Why are most of those peregrines not flying as organically as I’ve seen here?” he observed. “They appear mechanical, but they appear the same.”

Vidonia responded again as Van read another report. “Those would be piloted by regular pilots using interface cogs as their cognitive cores. They’re not as good as the Interface Cores your niece can make. But the yard can make more of them since they don’t require her to take time. It’s one of the reasons there are more jaegers with them than anyone else. Also, cogs don’t bond with pilots, so they are generally kept with the craft.”

Barry mulled over this and then asked, “How can Agatha trust jaegers with that amount of power?”

Van finally put down the paper work and looked at Barry. “How could you not?”

* * *

Barry looked at the Seneschal with shock at the hint of outrage in the question. “What do you mean? They are monsters, created to destroy.”

“They may be monsters, but they were created to serve. The Old Masters _used_ them to ravage and destroy, and they excel at it. But the same advantages that make them excel at that also make them excel as heroes. Since the old Baron gave them a job, they have been used to corral wild sparks, protecting the innocent.”

“From what I can tell from Grandfather’s stories, you never got to know the jaegers. If you had, you would have known that for most of them it is not the killing that they delight in, it is the challenge. They push themselves to excel in service to your family. Agatha was not raised with them either, but she was raised to respect constructs for _who_ they are rather than _what_ they are.” He leaned back in his seat, still with that pointed look at Barry. “That apparently is a lesson the old Baron apparently learned while he traveled with you that you never did. Now they are one of the primary weapons against the other, along with the vespiary squads. But they do not kill revenants unless they are forced to. Instead, they capture and contain until recordings of Lady Agatha’s voice can be used to settle them down. The Empire and now the Alliance use them as shock troops, but not against those who do not break the peace.”

“You treated them like bad, untrained mutts, when you should have treated them as superbly trained and obedient mastiffs. She treats them with respect, gets to know them, and uses them as needed. And because she respects, even loves them, they go out of their way for her.”

Looking out the window to see where they were, they both saw another of the Torchmen caught and dehatted, this time by a jaeger jumping off the wing of a biplane. “And now we have the new missions not meshing up with the old traditions, so new traditions are being made that add to and respect the old.” The jaeger leaped off and grabbed a lightning rod, breaking his fall long enough to parkour down and out of sight.

* * *

Barry sat back and mulled on this as they continued on. Looking back, he could see where many times he and Bill could have used extra help. He could even see that if they had brought the jaegers along, the past 25 years would have been very different, especially with how the jaegers apparently hated the methods used by the Other.

As he thought, the carriage pulled up to a grandstand still being assembled next to a runway. On the other side of the runway was rank upon rank of aircraft. As they disembarked near where Agatha and Bill stood waiting with her companions, a massive ornithoptor modeled to look like a bat-winged wolf came in for a landing nearby. Crew scrambled over the weather deck that was the spine of the craft as it furled its wings and boarding ramps lowered in conjunction with it lying down on it’s belly. A detail of jaegers loped off and joined the peremeter that had already been established as two women and men came down the nearest ramp. Barry recognized one as his old friend Klaus, but the others were all much younger.

“Hello, Uncle Barry,” Agatha said with a smile as Honker jumped over to his shoulder and rubbed it’s head against his cheek. “You’re just in time to meet the Baron’s party.”

In a surprise move, Klaus came forward and swept both Bill and Barry into a huge hug. “I’ve missed you two,” he said, and for one of the few times they could remember, the younger generation saw tears in his eyes.

Agatha gave the three time to recover and waited for them to separate before she went on, “Father, Uncle, I believe you already know Baron Klaus, but you have not met Baron Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, or his sister, War Princess Zeetha of Skifander. And this is Captain Dupree. Bang, you do anything to either of them, **you will not wish to be alive**.”


End file.
